One solution: open the coffee shop yourself. Gabriel Lowe opened K-Dog and Dunebuggy on a quiet strip of Prospect Lefferts Garden after she moved to the neighborhood in 2006 and found herself despairing over the lack of places to hang out or get a cup of joe.

“We really needed a place for the community to gather,” said Lowe.

The quirky, homespun cafe quickly became a spot where folks exiled from pricier neighborhoods were soon convocating with their matching MacBooks. Soon, Lowe had managed to convince Jim Mamary, once Brooklyn’s most prolific restaurateur, to come to the strip, too.

Lincoln Road’s transformation into an oasis from Prospect Lefferts Gardens’ limitless West Indian and Chinese take-out is by no means the only recent example of restaurant-led gentrification. Throughout lower-rent areas of Brooklyn, a lack of “good eats” is driving transplanted residents to open eateries themselves — and along with the multiplying eateries, comes a multiplicity of gentrifiers.

And you know what’s next: GQ food critics are trekking to Bushwick to eat pizza at Roberta’s.

“Food is the new art in the urban cultural experience. You used to have artists moving in and opening galleries, now there are foodies moving in and opening up cafes,” said Sharon Zukin, a professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and the author of “Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Culture.”

“Eateries are beginning to mark the borders of certain kinds of cultural divisions,” she added.

It’s happened in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where in 2004 neighborhood pioneer Bread Stuy paved the way for upscale pizzeria Saraghina to open over summer, and for Peaches, owned by the proprietors of the Fort Greene mainstay, the Smoke Joint, to open in 2008.

In Bushwick, the seemingly barren foodscape inspired two neighborhood musicians to open Roberta’s, an avant-garde pizzeria in a drafty warehouse.

In Ditmas Park, a neighborhood movement to attract more business to Cortelyou Road resulted in the development of a veritable restaurant row.

And most recently, Joe Brancaccio was inspired to open Brancaccio’s Food Shop in Kensington, where, to his surprise, the place was packed with folks aching for some truffled mac and cheese.

“I knew this neighborhood was on the verge,” said Brancaccio.

While the burgeoning restaurant scene certainly succeeds in attracting people to neighborhoods, for Gary Jonas, co-owner of The Farm on Adderly in Ditmas Park, that success has come at a price.

“When we moved here, it was the most-diverse neighborhood in country,” he said, “But we definitely see more people coming in from Manhattan and other areas of Brooklyn. When we signed the lease four years ago, we never could have imagined Cortelyou Road would become an actual dining destination.”

Zukin explained that the kinds of “low-key, homey” places that usually develop in neighborhoods like Prospect Lefferts Garden become instrumental in developing a new sense of community, attracting more gentrifiers, and ultimately signaling to developers that the neighborhood is less risky. Lather, rinse, and repeat.

In 2001, Ditmas Park resident Jan Rosenberg founded Friends of Cortelyou Road to help attract shops and restaurants to the area. A residential neighborhood in western Flatbush characterized by dozens of gorgeous Victorian homes and not much else, many residents had become frustrated with having to go to areas like Park Slope to shop and dine. Rosenberg first approached restaurateurs in Fort Greene and begged them to come to Cortelyou Road.

“I felt that restaurants were going to be what drew people,” she said.

The result? In October 2009, Time Out New York named Ditmas Park one of the best neighborhoods in New York City for food, followed shortly by high praise from the New York Times.

Eateries have become so essential to these communities, that when faced with the possibility of loosing them the community has rallied. Last month, Bread Stuy briefly shuttered until the community helped raise the $10,000 needed to reopen.

“I think that a community wants and needs food — residents are more willing to support or save these business than others,” said Jonas, adding that Ditmas Park’s coffee/bookstore Vox Pop was similarly bailed out of a financial abyss by the community.

Reasonable discourse

Carrie Hartman from Crown Heights says:

I'm sorry, but foodies only come after us lesbians in the gentrification food chain. You can open as many latte bars as you like, but it's us trail blazing lezzies that will kick out the losers and take over the homes and drink your coffees!

March 1, 2010, 10:17 am

J from Ditmas Park says:

Hurry up foodies/gentrifiers. Coney Island Avenue from Church to Newkirk is calling your name. American food, especially welcome---even a good hamburger.

March 1, 2010, 10:20 am

S from Flatbush. says:

' “We really needed a place for the community to gather,” said Lowe.'

You mean "your community". This article is so insulting to the neighborhoods that are being changed by these people. Are these new restaurants standing in opposition to the "culinary wastelands" in these ethnic (once a word that coded different, spicy, varied - food that had gentrifying types stumbling all over themselves to try. look how times change) neighborhoods? There is wonderful food all over Brooklyn - too bad the gentrifiers can't see what's under their noses.

And by the way, it's Flatbush, not Prospect-Lefferts Gardens.

March 1, 2010, 12:32 pm

Ed from Kensington says:

There are tons of places to eat in Kensington where the food is good. Many of them have been open for a long time and they give customers what they want.

March 1, 2010, 11:47 pm

Bob from Prospect Lefferts Gardens says:

"S",

FWIW the Prospect-Lefferts Gardens name has been used for the northern tip of Flatbush for well over 40 years; the name Lefferts Manor has been used for a portion of that area since 1919. But then I'm one of "these people" who's only lived in the neighborhood for thirty-five years.

March 2, 2010, 9:08 am

Ed from Kensington says:

"And most recently, Joe Brancaccio was inspired to open Brancaccio’s Food Shop in Kensington."

It's in Windsor Terrace.

March 3, 2010, 12:10 am

Janice lolly from Gowanas says:

As a gentry lesbian who eats I am offended by the nature of some of the "comments" posted here. Lattes in flatbush? yummy no no!

March 4, 2010, 1:06 pm

Scott from PLG says:

PLG "gentry" eats are not that good, Cafe Enduro has terrible food, K-Dog while a cool place is overpriced. The only thing that keeps them in business is that they are the only businesses that cater to the 15% of the population that is white. Best food by far in PLG is the Trinidad place De Hot Pot, and the Erols Jamaican Bakery.

Migrating populations in the city have always thrived by adapting to local tastes... Pizza and Knish anyone?

March 5, 2010, 2:34 pm

Fred Josh from Kennsington says:

THe first stage of a yuppie colonization (infestation) begins with a homespun coffee shop so these sheeple can sit inside it like robots and stare into their macbooks. PLEASE LEAVE KENNSINGTON ALONE! We need a coffee shop like a hole in the head. What we really need is a for all these transplants to move to Staten Island.

March 10, 2010, 10:47 pm

Fred Josh from Kennsington says:

@S from Flatbush

Agree 100%. You took the cupcake right outta my mouth.

March 10, 2010, 10:49 pm

Taffey Dollar from Kennsington says:

@S from Flatbush

Agree 100%. You took the cupcake right outta my mouth.

March 10, 2010, 10:50 pm

carolyn from formerly bushwick says:

I used to live in bushwick but now moved overseas and have found myself studying these topics. As a student in bushwick on $400/month rent I didn't count myself as the "gentry" but at the same time accept my whiteness probably marked me as a gentrifier back when I moved there in 05. I totally agree with @S from Flatbush--the idea that these are expanding amenities for the "community" is b.s. and code for gentrifying the neighborhood. I also take issue with Zukin's use of "homey" style places--"homey" style places were the little taquerias and Dominican bakeries that line the streets of Bushwick and demonstrate how important food places are to other non-gentrifying communities; however gentrifiers often overlook them because they don't identify with them. It really saddened me the day the first "hipster" cafe opened up off the jefferson stop on the L--bound to happen but same-old, same-old--hipster aesthetic, expensive coffee, other food places have to struggle to keep up and stay in business. Just because gentrifiers think it's "better" for the community doesn't mean they are talking about anyone but their own upper-middle class community.

Nov. 4, 2010, 9:05 pm

Comments closed.

First name

Last name

Your neighborhood

Email address

Daytime phone

Your letter must be signed and include all of the information requested above. (Only your name and neighborhood are published with the letter.) Letters should be as brief as possible; while they may discuss any topic of interest to our readers, priority will be given to letters that relate to stories covered by The Brooklyn Paper.

Letters will be edited at the sole discretion of the editor, may be published in whole or part in any media, and upon publication become the property of The Brooklyn Paper. The earlier in the week you send your letter, the better.